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“Charlie Hebdo” and the right to offend

The attack on the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo has reignited the debate surrounding the appropriateness of mockery as a form of political and social commentary. The magazine and its cartoons follow a European tradition of illustrated allegory in which the news of the day is almost sophomorically lampooned as a way to speak truth to power and the overly-sensitive elite. Today on Radio Times, we discuss the right to offend. We’re joined by editorial cartoonist SIGNE WILKINSON of The Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News, as well as MATT WELCH, editor-in-chief at Reason magazine, and ERIK WEMPLE, media critic for The Washington Post.